Grad school cities? How cycle friendly are they?

[Grog]

My parents winterize in Fort Lauderdale and I've visited a couple of times. My cycling experience there is limited but my mom cycles all the time and so far so good. They're on the seaside though. I would err on the side of being quite cautious and taking for granted that car drivers will not respect any right I may have.

One good thing though: IT'S FLAT. (But can be windy.)

[WindingRoad]

Emily - I'm not sure if I want to live super close to campus. I may need to keep my costs down that way and I guess it is probably cheaper to live a little further out? Maybe I'm wrong on that, l don't know the area at all. I am very happy to see there are a couple of good clubs close by . I will be attending the Optometry school if that makes a difference. If you have any more tid bits please throw it out there. Thanks so much!

Ft. Lauderdale is one option: another option is Elins Park, Pennsylvania, another is San Antonio, Texas. These are the three I'm hoping will pull through for me anyways... as before if anyone knows some inside information I'd love to hear it. I would ideally like to leave the car parked. I'm used to riding in traffic I don't like it when it's really heavy traffic and drivers get too pushy so that's why I'm factoring decent bike routes into my decision. Maybe it sounds goofy but cycling has become a pretty big part of my life and I'd like to keep it that way. I think most of you know what I mean

[WindingRoad]

OK I'd have to put Chicago on my list of 'hopefuls' now too. I just watched that video and that is awesome! Looks like that's downtown too because I recognize some of those roads! The school I'm interested in it right next to Buckinham Fountain! Any Chicagolanders?!?!?!? Gimme the scoop on commuting there, help help!

[WindingRoad]

Owlie: I noticed you are in Ohio that's another location I'm considering. Ohio State to be specific, good commuter city? I'm a midwesterner so I know the winters suck but other than do you think it is do-able?

Totally understand why you are looking at Arizona, ROFL! I'd REALLY like to get somewhere warmer too!

[Geonz]

Check out our fearless U of Illinois down here in Champaign-Urbana. It's got a teeny fraction of Chicago's traffic and lots of folks on bikes and the weather is a tad better, tho' compared to florida I'm not sure you'd notice. Now, our U is having some issues and scandals with admissions (that special "I" list if you knew somebody who knew somebody so your actual qualifications didn't quite matter as much) and the prez just quit - to become faculty at 300K ... but when I looked at grad schools I went "to the library" on the Internet to see which professors wrote stuff I liked in the journals and landed in South Carolina.
Commuting here is easy if you pick where you live -- there are a couple of areas where it's only trafficky roads to get to the U, but anywhere else there are nice residential options. We're also putting together a pretty good plan for the future - seems the powers that be are slowly grokking that it really, honestly is cheaper to humor that eccentric bunch of cyclists since fewer cars on campus has gawdzillions of advantages.

[Owlie]

Owlie: I noticed you are in Ohio that's another location I'm considering. Ohio State to be specific, good commuter city? I'm a midwesterner so I know the winters suck but other than do you think it is do-able?

Totally understand why you are looking at Arizona, ROFL! I'd REALLY like to get somewhere warmer too!

Arizona also has a toxicology program.

I've lived in the other two major cities, but not Columbus (I'm assuming you're looking at OSU's main campus). I'd imagine that people in the areas around campus are at least used to seeing cyclists because of the large university population. They're also probably used to seeing cyclists doing stupid things (students trying to get across campus), so if you do smart things, you're good. I don't know much about it, though.
(Since I'm also looking at OSU, I think I'll be finding this out eventually.)

[WindingRoad]

Well I think I've whittled it down to Philadelphia (Elkins Park). I was curious if anyone was from PA and could give me some suggestions on good places to ride? suggestions about apartments? Brand newbie to east coast so this should be a lot of fun!

[ginny]

um... Fort Collins, CO is a pretty bike friendly place - good school (CSU), and if we don't have a toxicology program, we have people in the MIP dept who do do toxicology (not, do-do *wink*)